Having not eaten in so long just a few bags of chips is enough the make her incredibly ill and collapse behind the dumpster suffering from refeeding syndrome. This could kill her and the Elemental bound to her soul knows it, trying to escape from her body and sending resonances of magic out as it attempts this.

Resonances in magic a watchful wizard from Liverpool currently hiding in Gotham City might pick up. And so the signature of an elemental makes one of John Constantine’s many medallions crackle with sparks and pull towards something. John scries the location of this magical signature on a map and puts on his motorcycle helmet. Something like that probably shouldn't be left wandering Gotham.

John drives his motorcycle to the address he scried and he uses the medallion to pinpoint exactly where the signature is coming from leading him to a dumpster behind an alley. There he finds a rail-thin girl occasionally sparking with static, seems he found his elemental. He checks her vitals and checks a few diagnostic charms and realises there is an elemental stuck inside this young girls soul and if she wasn’t already going to die then the elementals attempts to free itself so it wouldn’t die with her would kill her. He does a quick chant to quiet the elemental, wraps the girl in his jacket, and brings her back to his flat.

He uses what little healing magic and first-aid he has access to right now (he is a little low on materials) on her and makes sure she is warm and leaves her on the couch hoping she pulls through. Just in case she does die and that frees the elemental he draws a magic circle around her to keep it from escaping the flat and causing havoc.

He has done all he can, all thats left is to see if she makes it.

She stays unconscious the rest of that day and into the next, but eventually when he checks he'll find her awake, watching him warily.

He is also watching her warily, having an elemental bound to ones soul was not normal. “Hello there kid...you almost died.” And John really can’t think of anytying else to say right at this moment. He slowly comes over and takes the nutrient drip he rigged up out of her arm and breaks the the saltline making the magic circle around her with his shoe.

She tenses up when he approaches, but doesn't otherwise respond.

Backs off after hes done taking out the IV. “So you dont have to tell me if you dont want to...but uhhh...how did you end up like that?” He pulls out some nicotene gum to chew.

She relaxes slightly when he backs off, and shifts to pull her arm under the blanket. Doesn't take her eyes off him, though, and still doesn't say anything.

“Can you tell me your name? Doesn’t have to be your real name just something to call you...” Names did have power after all. But hey the kid almost starved to death then ate too much too fast and has a bloody fucking elemental living inside her, he can understand if she doesn’t feel up to talking just yet.

She doesn't immediately answer this, either, but the way her eyes narrow suggest she's thinking about it, and after a couple seconds she offers "'anet." (She's got a toddler's enunciation, but her tone is confident, deliberate, with an undertone of frustration.)

“Okay Anet. Have trouble speaking? You can shake and nod your head if that is easier to communicate with if you want.” John is used to magically induced brain damage so he isn’t visibly shocked or looking all condescendingly pityingly at her or anything.

"Mm."

“So...did you know about the...sparking you were doing when I found you?” Not mentioning elementals in case that makes him sound even more crazy right now.

She tenses up again, and looks away from him for the first time as she curls in on herself a little.

“Hey, I deal with stuff like this all the time, no judgement here.” Hands up palms out in a gesture of harmlessness.

She doesn't uncurl, but shuts her eyes instead.

“Some of my best friends had elemental powers, It’s okay.” Oh shit what does he do? He has no idea how to salvage this she seems to just be getting more upset.

She opens her eyes again, still very wary.

“Uhh yeah a friend called alec is bonded with the representation of all plant life, he lives in a swamp and can control plant life.” Trying to keep her interest and stop her from shutting down, sketching a quick circle in chalk and nicking his finger over it so it bleeds a litlle. There is a flash and a little blue flame shows up.

“See, totally normal powers and nothing you have to afraid of me judging you for.” Well unless she sacrificed someone to get the powers then he would judge her but that wasn’t usual with elementals.

She makes a face when he nicks his finger, and flinches outright at the flame, but she's still watching.

“So yeah, powers. Don’t freak out at me knowing since now you know I can do stuff too.”

Kids are so hard, he just wants to explain the dangers of having an elemental to her and kick her out the door with some groceries and a map to the nearest shelter. But noooo that would be “irresponsible” and “mean”.

And also she would probably die, given givens.

She keeps watching him; she's at least a little less upset, but still very wary, like she's waiting for something bad to happen.

“So can you control your sparking? Does it...hurt you?” Messing with souls is better not attempted but if the Elemental is doing enough harm to her...might be worth the risk. He didnt see any electrical burns on her though.

She considers the question for a long moment, then wiggles her hand out from under the blanket again and, when it's clear, sends sparks playing across the skin. They don't get close to the blanket and she doesn't seem to be in pain, though she only keeps it up for a few seconds before dropping her arm back down to the couch cushion.

John looks relieved and leans back running his hands through his hair. “Well that’s good then. The uhhh...thing giving you those sparks was causing some damage before when you were close to dying, but now you are a little better it seems to be fine.”

She doesn't seem to like that very much.

“Am I going to get in trouble by helping you? Don’t worry I won’t stop helping if the answer is yes but I’d like to know if the cops are going to come knocking on my door. Id have to hide some...stuff if they do.” Some magical artifacts he has have been... liberated from previous owners.

"Mnh." She attempts to wobble her hand in a 'so-so' gesture without picking it up from the couch; this only sort of works.

Well...he can deal with that. Lots of his friends are criminals. “You...got anywhere to go? Family? Friends? I couldn’t just let you die but I can’t keep you here indefinitely. It’s not very safe around me.”

This time she does curl up, knees to chest, head tucked.

“Not going to ask you to leave right now.” Holding up his hands placatingly. “But if you have nowhere to go then I need to find somewhere for you to stay that can handle... abilities and trauma. Not like I can just hand you over to the system that wouldnt work out for anyone.”

She doesn't respond at all, to that.

“Well you can stay here for a while at least... just bang against the coffee table if you need me I guess. I made soup if you feel up to eating a little.” And John goes off to the kitchen connected to the loungeroom to make himself a drink.

So the next few days are spent in relative silence with John rarely getting called over by the girl he knows as Anet. He makes sure she eats once a day and all the other basic health stuff to make sure she recovers. Otherwise he doesn’t interact with her very much as she doesnt seem particularly interested in interacting with him.

He spends his free time drinking in the corner of the flat or doing diagnostic charms in the kitchen to make sure nobody is looking for him. The charms result in the odd puff of coloured smoke or flash of white flame that the girl can see from her position on the couch. He seems almost relieved she isn’t requiring scintillating social dailogue from him.

After a few days of this he comes back and kneels in front her couch. “Hey Anet, you doing better?”

She's still weak, but she's been recovering reasonably well, and is much calmer now that some time has passed without anything alarming happening. She still tenses up a little at this deviation from the routine she's used to, though. "Mnh," she opines.

“So...I know this guy, really experienced with people with abilities. Bit of an antisocial git though. Thought maybe you should meet him? That okay?” Batman, as much of a git as he could be, had already had a boy wonder and batgirl under his care and he ran a whole team of meta humans and aliens and lived right here in gotham. Probably the best bet for who she could stay with right now John thought.

She makes a deeply dubious face, but nods after a second.

“Okay good, I will call him over and he might get here by this afternoon.” Well that went well for a usual “conversation” with Anet.

So John calls the number the Batman gave him. Blimey it was such a stupid fucking name Batman, could barely manage to call him that with a straight face when they were together. John tells Batman he has a meta-human he should meet at the flat, of course Batman already knows the adress even though John has been trying to do a very good job hiding.

Sometime in the Afternoon the doorbell rings. Well that was polite of him he usually just appears behind you all spooky like. John gets the door and lets the Caped Crusader himself into the flat. He hopes Batmans spooky black outfit doesn’t freak Anet out.

“Hey Anet this is the guy I told you about, maybe I should have mentioned it was Batman but pretty cool right?” Kids liked Batman right?.

Batman just stands there being a grown man in a black cowl and cape standing there trying to be intimidating. 

...Batman. Like, from TV, Batman. She hadn't actually been entirely sure he was real before this moment.

She tries to communicate "I have no idea what you expect me to do here" to John through the medium of facial expression and a baffled noise.

“So John what is this all about? Why call me here?” Batman asks in his gravelly voice.

“Well...I found her behind a dumpster near starved to death comatose from refeeding syndrome and she can shoot electricty from herself? I don’t know mate you are the one with powered friends being the super squad all over the place. I thought you might be able to help or have some advice. You’ve dealt with super kids before.” John runs his hands through his hair nervously.

“Huh. Good point.” And Batman looks the girl over much more intently.

She stares back, having pushed herself a bit more upright while they were talking - she's too weak to sit up for long, still, even propped up like she is, and to his eye that's probably pretty obvious, but she's making a good show of it, anyway.

Batman smiles a little seeing her stare back, its barely noticable but for someone as stoic as batman is he might as well be grinning.

”So, electricty huh? Can you show me?” He says in a less gravelly voice than usual trying to be less scary, but it’s still a pretty gruff voice.

With one hand busy holding her upright, she's pretty limited in what she can do, but she shows off her free hand covered in sparks and then considers the height of the room's ceiling carefully before showing off a small bolt of lightning, sized to dissipate well before it hits it.

“Good control. You ever think of doing something with that power?” Batman looks all aproving at the display.

“Jeez she’s just a kid, I was mostly hoping you would know where she could stay and not have her get sent to some home. You know that wouldn’t work for someone with powers. Didn’t expect you to try and recruit her.” John knew batman had kids for sidekicks, but having spent some time just existing around Anet and seeing her all frail and weak he doesn’t like the idea of her being out there in danger.

She ignores John entirely, beyond waiting for him to finish talking, and shakes her head. "New," she produces, with some effort.

“New power?” Batman tilts his head questioningly.

She nods.

“A lot of the kids, I mean sidekicks, have been talking about forming their own superhero team. That sound like something you might be interested in? Could do a lot of good with that power.”

John is looking dissaproving at Batman.

She considers.

"Not - " she says, after a moment, and then seems to get stuck trying to figure out how to say what she means; she ends up shooting a small bolt of lightning at John, again dissipating well before it hits anything. "Not," she asserts.

“Okay okay ill stay out of it.” Hands up placatingly.

“Don’t want to use your powers against people? I get that, but sometimes it’s the only way to help even more people.”

Apparently it is now staring down Batman time.

Batman is very good at staring contests, he does not back down from the child staring him down.

Batman knows he is right from years of experience fighting bigger threats and doesn’t care enough about regular social rules with children to back down.

She's not actually going to budge on this one.

She is going to have to lie back down, though, even if she waits for her arm to nearly give out to do it.

“The world would have ended if I had refused to fight threats to it out of a general objection to violence, same with anyone on the justice league.” Being all annoyed injury took away a legitimate win on that confrontation.

"Not," she repeats. "I not."

"Look if the only way to save a lot of people is to stop one person by nonlethally hurting them, that is a worthwhile tradeoff. If someone has prisoners and says they will shoot a prisoner every hour just because they can it is the right thing to do to nonlethally take them down so they can't kill those people." Batman is mildly miffed he has to explain what seems just obvious to him. "Do you think it would be okay to let those people get hurt just because you don't want to do anything violent to the bad guy?"

This seems to give her pause; she considers it, and huffs in frustration.

“Stopping bad guys from hurting people is what hero’s do, we even have a UN charter now partially funding and sanctioning our actions so it appears the world agrees.” And that is not actually something Batman ever thought would happen, he expected to always be an illegal vigilante but it was nice to be validated by an official body.

”But if you really do not want to join a hero team I can think of a few people who would be okay giving someone powered a place to stay until you figure out what you want to do. Just don’t become a supervillian.” And with that comment Batman glares all warningly at the child like the insensitive serious warrior he was.

(Turns out she doesn't do well being glared at.)

Well batman said his piece and turns to leave. “I assume you can keep her for a few more days?” He says to John.

“Yeah till the end of the week.” John replies.

”I will be back in a few days for either your decision on hero work or with options for people you could stay with that would be able to understand about powered people.” And Batman swoops out the door of the tiny apartment as dramatically as he can. The Batman wishes so hard that john lived off ground floor so he could climb out the window and jump off the fire escape as was normal for him for extra flair.

John stands there looking annoyed for a while. “Batman can be kind of intense... I thought he might tone it down around a kid but I guess not. Sorry Anet.”

She's a little calmer with Batman gone, but that barely works out to looking at John when he speaks, never mind speaking herself.

Bruce is back at Wayne manor looking up missing children's reports to try and identify this girl John had found. He is scrolling through when he sees a certain institute has put out a notice that a girl called Denice had gone missing, and to please call the authorities if she is seen so she can be returned to them. The picture is very clearly that of the girl John had found.

Bruce goes digging a little deeper. Trivially breaking into the files of the institute and finding her file.

Her name is Denice Dimas, and she's severely autistic, nonverbal with an estimated mental age of six to her actual age of fourteen and a third grade education. She's a ward of the state, her parents having given her up when she was five; they seem to have never so much as called to ask about her, and have since moved out of state. Her current treatment plan is 40 hours a week of ABA, supported with a 'food plan'. She was on an aversives protocol, too, until the law changed a few years ago to forbid that; the records claim that she responded well to it, her stimming having been extinguished almost entirely and instances of ignoring her therapists having been reduced significantly by the time they were forced to stop. Behaviorally, she's noted as being stubborn, though not violent or aggressive; most of the things she's been punished for have been refusals to cooperate with treatment, though she also has a habit of 'interfering' with the other patients - trying to mitigate their punishments, in particular, and in one notable case, she worked out a way to 'lose' part of her lunch and get the staff to replace it, so she could pass the hidden food off to another kid on a food plan; it took several days after they caught on and started refusing to replace the meal for her to stop trying to pull that off.

Bruce does not know much about the treatment of autistic children but this sets off a lot of red flags just on a cursory examination. He spends a good while looking up all the technical terms and he is NOT left with a good impression of this institution. If they receive any Wayne foundation money that will stop instantly and he will be contacting the new york state surgeon general to look into this.

The girl did not seem only mentally 6 like the report said either, She had difficulties sure but she seemed to follow the conversation with concepts that many 6-year-olds might have trouble with just fine. She had strong opinions and clearly wanted to communicate her ideas on them.

Sending her back to the institute did not seem like an option at all. Maybe having her join the team immediately would be a bad idea even if she did want to join. Some time with someone less callous and inhuman than the institute might be good for her. Alan was good with children maybe he should ask him, Alan was one of the warmest people he knew.

John spends the days until the Batman comes back trying to keep Anet comfortable and not push any boundaries. He still doesn't really know how to interact with kids much less what he just thinks is a traumatised kid so It is still mostly just comfortable silence between them and him backing off any time Anet looked annoyed or bored with him. He does assure her that she doesn't have to go be a hero and put herself in danger unless she really wants to.

John is not very comfortable with kids going out and fighting. Robin and Batgirl seemed competent enough but...still made him feel bad thinking about it.

His guest continues to be quiet and undemanding. She doesn't seem to ever get bored, and it's hard to annoy her, though she does occasionally get frustrated - at her own continuing weakness, more often than at anything he does. She listens to his assurances, doesn't react to them in any particular way, doesn't try to communicate anything about it one way or the other.

Well, he can't really do much about that so he just does his best until batman comes back.

There is a knock at the door and the Batman is let inside. This time when he looks at who he now knows is Denice his gaze is sympathetic.

...why is he doing that. This is concerning.

"The people who were looking for you are not going to get you, understand? Not going to let it happen." Being as blunt as usual. The Batman could certainly learn some tact.

Denice doesn't seem to mind - she relaxes a bit, and nods, solemnly.

"Do I have to worry about people looking for her? Like a cult coming after its completed ritual or some faff like that?" John doesn't look too worried at the possibility of fighting a cult. That's just another Tuesday for him.

"No, you do not." And that is all he says.

That's a thing that can happen?